Keyboard used in the information terminal and arrangement thereof

Abstract

A keyboard used with information terminals / devices and key arrangement on the keyboard. The keyboard comprises a high click frequency key group chain consisting of at least four of the five vowel keys and the ‘N’ key. Within the key group chain, each member key is next to at least one another member key along a row or along a column. The five vowel keys are A, E, I, 0, U. The keyboard can be operated by a single hand, and can have an alphabet input region with 4 to 6 columns of keys, depending on the particular usage requirement, but still maintain a same central module. The keyboard is convenient for inputting Chinese phonetic letters and alphabets of Western languages.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of PCT Application No. PCT / CN2005 / 001364, filed Aug. 30, 2005, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application Nos. 200410074017.8 and 200510007396.3, filed Sep. 1, 2004 and Feb. 28, 2005, respectively, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a general keyboard and key arrangement thereon for desktop and portable computers, handheld devices and information terminals and their peripheral devices for text and information input and control, which may be implemented as a hardware keyboard having physical keys or as a software keyboard to display on a terminal touch screen or monitor. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Entering into the 21st century, human society is stepping into a brand-new electronic information era. With rapid deployment of wired and wireless internet computer terminals, mobile information cell phones, ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004] The object of the present invention is to provide a keyboard and the key arrangement thereof, which can be installed in modern information terminals, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, web TV terminals, mobile telephones, fixed telephones, computer dictionary, standalone keyboards, remote controller, etc. and related peripheral devices, and which can be operated with a single hand and a thumb, meet ergonomic requirement and be suitable for using in non-office settings. The keyboard can be flexibly designed to have an alphabet input region with four, five, or six columns based on the particular usage and the shape of the information device or terminal, but still keep the key arrangement of a core key-group unchanged so that the user doesn't need to learn a new arrangement for the keys in the core group when the user moves from one keyboard design to another design of the present invention. With the keyboard of the present invention, the user can input smoothly and efficiently with short distances of finger movement, and can input conveniently both the Chinese phonetic alphabet and those of a Western language. The basis of the technical solution of the present invention is described in the following.

Problems solved by technology

With rapid deployment of wired and wireless internet computer terminals, mobile information cell phones, household information devices and TV terminals, the design of keyboard, which is an important input means for all those informational devices, is facing challenges and urgent demand for fundamental changes, because the conventional keyboard design is lagged-behind in application form and structural arrangement.

However, those general-purpose keyboards have their drawbacks: the key arrangement was not based on sufficient scientific analysis on the keys' usage frequency data, with no consideration of the thumb operation and peculiar issues involved in inputting Chinese characters—the language used by the largest population in the world, much less consideration given to the tone marks in Chinese phonetic input and tone / accent marks appeared in letters of French, German, Spanish, and Esperanto, etc.

Those problems are considered as severe drawbacks in the key arrangement of the conventional keyboard.

So far, there still lacks a careful coordination for information input with keyboard to deal with the diverse languages coexisting in the world, nor are there considerations for establishing a set of core keys and for modularizing key groups for making convenient and flexible combinations of alphabet-keys on the keyboard so as to adapt to different terminals and devices.

Images